Saturday, January 31, 2009

Patrick Martin of Toronto's Globe & Mail has investigated the clash between the IDF and Hamas gunmen near the UN school in Gaza that led to the tragic death of 43 civilians and concluded that the facts simply do not support the accepted story that the school was shelled and that not a single civilian inside the school died.

"Physical evidence and interviews with several eyewitnesses, including a teacher who was in the schoolyard at the time of the shelling, make it clear: While a few people were injured from shrapnel landing inside the white-and-blue-walled UNRWA compound, no one in the compound was killed. The 43 people who died in the incident were all outside, on the street, where all three mortar shells landed.

"Stories of one or more shells landing inside the schoolyard were inaccurate.

"While the killing of 43 civilians on the street may itself be grounds for investigation, it falls short of the act of shooting into a schoolyard crowded with refuge-seekers."

This gives rise to several issues including the way the story was initially reported and the subsequent conduct of UNRWA spokespeople who had a gread deal to say about the incident in the aftermath and I will cover these issues in later posts.

However, for now I will simply reflect on the Melbourne Age's initial treatment of the story by returning to an item I posted on 7 January 2009 under the heading - THE AGE SLAUGHTERS THE TRUTH:The Age on line edition is carrying this one-sided AFP report headlined on its home page as follows:-Israeli school slaughter

The story carries a different headline - Israeli strike kills 40 in UN school. It tells about the deaths of up to "45 people seeking refuge in a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip" (i.e. the school was run by UNRWA - one of the largest employers of Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip) is a totally one-sided version of the incident suggesting this was a callous attack on innocents. This version is typical of AFP fairness and balance in that the 490 word article written by an unamed "journalist" ends with the following 22 words which is the only part of the story that deals with the Israeli side of the story:-

Israel said it would investigate the attacks on the schools. It accuses Hamas of using schools, mosques and residential areas for cover.This time last week the Melbourne Age was running apologies for the publication of an antiSemitic column by one of its business writers. Will there now be another apology from the Age over the publication of this grossly inaccurate and misleading report?

Al-Jazeera TV, January 22, 2009: "Today, Hamas Gangs Are Unleashed Like Packs of Animals on the Streets of Gaza Against Fatah Members" Yasser Abd Rabbo: "Yesterday, we heard Khaled Mash’al talking from Damascus about new, additional preconditions for national reconciliation – the only goal of which is to hinder the achievement of reconciliation. [...] "Today, Hamas gangs are unleashed like packs of animals on the streets of Gaza against Fatah members. Because the military bases and the prisons have been destroyed, they have turned Gaza schools, Al-Nasser Hospital, the radiology department at Shifa' Hospital, Al-Aqsa University, and other places, including mosques, into centers for the detention, interrogation, and torture of Fatah members and members of other national Palestinian factions. [...] "Dozens of people have been shot in the leg, been beaten savagely, and had their bones broken, because they are members of the Fatah movement, which took to the streets of Gaza to confront the occupation, leaving all disagreements [with Hamas] behind, during the battle against the invasion by the Israeli occupation. This is what is happening today in Gaza. [...] "This reminds me of the 'glorious exploits' of Chemical Ali in southern Iraq after the 1991 'Mother of All Wars.' When the smoke of battle cleared, he turned his gangs and his fire against the Iraqis in southern Iraq, and the massacre that ensued is known to all. Who is the 'Chemical' today in Gaza, who wants to turn Gaza into the venue of a new massacre? [...] "I heard that Abu Marzouq is sanctioning the killing of Palestinians, in an interview with the Qatari Al-Sharq newspaper the day before yesterday. He said that they have [captured] collaborators, and they have already executed some, while others await their turn. What collaborators are you talking about, Mr. Abu Marzouq? Of course he has expanded the list, saying that anyone who criticizes the policy of Hamas a traitor and a collaborator, and that it is okay to kill him. Is this the promised Islamic rule, or is it a blood-soaked lie about Islam? [...] "Who plunders the trucks bringing aid to the Gaza Strip, and distributes it only among the follows of its party and movement, while the children of Gaza are starving? Who is stealing the land of Gaza, dividing it into lots, and giving them to the cronies of Hamas members of the Shura Council?" [...] Al-Arabiya TV, January 16, 2009: "[Hamas] Still Has a Backward Understanding of the Meaning of a Popular Mandate""[Hamas] still has a backward understanding of the meaning of a popular mandate. A popular mandate does not mean that the people places its fate in your hands for you to do as you wish – to drag it into wars and destruction, without taking anything into consideration [...] "What came out of the Doha 'festival' except for speeches lecturing us, and peddling the blood of Gaza. Each of the regimes that were present there is domestically defeated for one reason or another. I don't want to get into specifics regarding each regime, but one of them carried out a military coup, another has a problem with the International Criminal Court, and the others have different problems."The matters raised by Abd Rabbo are significant but it seems that because they address issues of Arab on Arab violence, the story is of no interest to the mainstream media which is looking elsewhere.

The Australian Cut and Paste recently took on the myth of the noble terrorists of Hamas. It's something we all knew anyway but many in the media just don't get it yet. Even though this segment quotes Jason Koustoukis of the Age and the Age recently published an article citing an Italian journalist in Gaza which debunked Hamas ministry lies about casualty numbers from the conflict, that same newspaper is still today publishing the same lie in an article sourced from the usual suspects when it comes to biased reporting - AFP and the Guardian.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

The first respondent to Melanie Phillips’ excellent report on the scandalous state of affairs within UNRWA - A SELECTIVE APPROACH TO THE FACTS tells a joke that goes something like this:

Q: How do you know when a Hamas spokesman (or their sympathisers) are lying?A: When their lips are moving!

Somewhat extreme perhaps but when you consider the facts as presented by Phillips and the role played by UNRWA spokespersons, their general and routine condemnation of IDF actions and denials of Hamas involvement at UNRWA facilities during the Gaza War, the joke's not all that funny.

Phillips rips into John Ging, director of UNRWA in Gaza, and its spokesman Chris Gunness and it’s a whithering attack. Her concluding paragraphs are particularly damning of UNRWA and confirms the growing tide of belief among many that the time has come for this pair to be stood down while a proper and impartial investgation of UNRWA's activities in Gaza is carried out:-

Now a devastating report on UNRWA by its former general counsel, James Lindsay, has just been published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It concludes:

At the same time, UNWRA has gradually adopted a distinctive political viewpoint that favors the Palestinian and Arab narrative of events in the Middle East. In particular, it seems to favor the strain of Palestinian political thought espoused by those who are intent on a “return” to the land that is now Israel. UNRWA’s adoption of any political viewpoint is undesirable, but the one it has chosen to emphasize is especially regrettable. In addition to clashing with the objectives of the United States, this view has detracted from UNRWA’s humanitarian assistance, encouraged Palestinians who favor refighting long-lost wars, discouraged those who favor moving toward peace, and contributed to the scourge of conflicts that have been visited upon Palestinian refugees for decades.

Readers can make up their own minds whether one telephone call to UNRWA can really establish the truth of anything about Gaza at all.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

News of Hamas abuses during the Gaza War is slowly coming out as a reluctant media begins to realise that it can't avoid the truth about the fundamentalist terrorist organisation that has caused so much misery to the Palestinians under its control. In Spiegel On Line, Ulrike Putz reports from Gaza (Gaza in Ruins) on how Hamas used and abused its people by treating them as human shields. Jason Koutsoukis in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald reported recently that Hamas tried to hijack ambulances during Gaza war (note that I use the SMH headline rather than that of the Age which came straight out of the Goebbels sub-editing handbook). Hamas has been stealing humanitarian aid meant for the people of Gaza and using it for its own purposes (and its UNRWA lapdog partners make no effort to condemn or investigatethe practice.

Now, the news of a Palestinian human rights activist and journalist who used to work for the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem on charges of "collaboration" with Israel - Hamas executes former B'tselem field worker.

Hamas targets both Israeli and Palestinian civilians and yet many around the world still don't get it!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

John Ging and Chris Gunness of the United Nations were extremely vocal in criticising Israel for certain alleged actions by the IDF during the Gaza War. They have been less forthcoming in relation to allegations about terrorist activity within UN facilities under their control. They both should be stood down from their positions until claims such as the one below (translated from Ynet News) are investigated fully:

Recent years have seen the gradual takeover of UNRWA educational and welfare institutions in Gaza by Palestinian terrorist organizations, led by Hamas. Just six months after Hamas' general election victory, it won a clear victory in the UNRWA workers committee elections held on 14 June 2006.

Suhil el-Hindi, head of the teachers sector at UNRWA schools, operates openly as Hamas' representative. He controls the curriculum in UNRWA schools, the employment of teachers in those schools, and the summer camps.

Hamas Interior Minister Said Sayyam, responsible for Hamas terror operations, who was targeted in the recent Gaza war, was a teacher at UNRWA schools for 23 years. Following the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007, parents of students in UNRWA schools wrote to the head of UNRWA charging that scores of teachers at the schools belonged to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and requested an urgent investigation.

In another example, Awad el-Kik, the principal of an UNRWA school in Rafiah, was also head of weapons and rocket manufacturing for Islamic Jihad in Gaza until he was targeted on 30 April 2008.

It seems very likely that contributions by Western nations to UNRWA pay the salaries of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who are educating the next generation of Palestinians in jihad against Israel and all non-Muslims. Western nations should demand that terror group activists be removed from UN institutions as a condition of continued funding.

Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi is a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and co-founder of the Orient Research Group Ltd. (Ynet-Hebrew)

The International Federation of Journalists which, over the last month, has condemned Israel's "blockade" on journalists entering Gaza over the last month has also condemned Hamas for its threats and intimidation of journalists.

"The last month has been hell for journalists working in Gaza, "said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White. "It is impossible to properly investigate the media situation in Gaza without considering the difficulties facing journalists, particularly because of the Hamas regime. It is clear that Hamas are no friends of media freedom and have been ruthless in their intimidation and manipulation of the media. The situation of journalists in Gaza was already intolerable without military activity and this latest conflict has not made it any better. The IFJ is particularly concerned by Hamas' attempts to interfere in the work of Palestinian journalists. Now that the violence has stopped, it is time for all sides, including Hamas, to allow journalists to work freely."

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Gaza War seems to have spawned a revival in the news industry in the Middle East. A brand new broadsheet has appeared at newsstands in the beleagured territory and has immediately set breathtakingly new standards of journalism even for this part of the world. Thanks to the wonders of auto-translate here is an excerpt from the new media hit in Gaza Al Age:-

"According to figures issued by the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza today, the death toll in the three week conflict between Israel and Hamas has reached 1,356 of who 2,004 were civilians".

Sunday, January 25, 2009

"Israel is the only democracy in the world ever accused of war crimes when it fights a defensive war to protect its civilians. This is remarkable, especially in light of the fact that Israel has killed far fewer civilians than any other country in the world that has faced comparable threats. In the most recent war in Gaza fewer than a thousand civilians -- even by Hamas' skewed count -- have been killed. This, despite the fact that no one can now deny that Hamas had employed a deliberate policy of using children, schools, mosques, apartment buildings and other civilian areas as shields from behind which to launch its deadly anti-personnel rockets. The Israeli Air Force has produced unchallengeable video evidence of this Hamas war crime. "

Saturday, January 24, 2009

[See no Hamas Rally in Melbourne last Sunday: The Age ignored this child-monster and the cops didn't take the parents into custody for child abuse. A Greens Senator addressed these people and a hitherto unknown Jew claimed she was "ashamed to be a Jew" - but not ashamed that she was part of this hideous and racist freak show!]

A headline story in today's Melbourne Age about changes in US policy on the Israel/Arab conflict (Obama redraws Middle East) is unfortunately neither particularly informative nor convincing. It tells of "a significant shift" in policy, and then basically describes an Obama line that sounds essentially like the old Bush line with a few subtle nuanced changes. We have a "new" Middle East envoy in George Mitchell who has been there and done that before and failed in the past under Bush but the article doesn't mention this at all. Hamas' response to Obama's "sweeping" changes of policy is that it believes Obama represents no change at all and that his efforts will fail. In this report, the Age sees no Hamas and its readers are thereby robbed of the important ingredient in making any assessment of the Obama administration's prospects for success in this area (also leaving it open in the future to blame Israel for any failures in its policies).

One thing the Age does today is that it discloses to its readers the details of the Italian report in Corriere della Sera of growing sceptism of Palestinian information about casualties published during the three week long Israeli campaign - Israelis seize on toll claim. For the better part of a month, the Age has been publishing "official" Palestinian figures of the casualty numbers as a result of the conflict. The figures were always dressed up as being from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza (that's the Hamas ministry but the Age sees no Hamas) but the data has always been treated with suspicion as the numbers vascillated daily and the proportion of civilian deaths changed improbably from day to day. Yet, the Age continued to publish the numbers and still won't reveal the Israeli side of the story. In this Jerusalem Post article - Israel disputes Gaza death toll, we learn that the jury is still out as far as the Israelis are concerned but it leaves no doubt that they consider the civilian death count figure has been grossly exaggerated. The Israeli doubt on the figures is not explained in the Age article which sits as a mere sideline among a number of stories in today's edition.

And that's one of the problems with the Age. It's quick to come out with accusations of bad conduct on the part of Israelis and to highlight them with blazing headlines but, when the time comes for the mea culpa (like the microscopic apology for publishing Michael Backman's anti-Semitic trope in its business pages), it usually goes missing.

Which brings us to the tragedy of the Abed Rabbo family of the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. The Age's Jason Koutsoukis today covers the story as told by a grieving father of how he alleges an Israeli soldier shot dead two of his daughters on 7 January - Soldier gunned down my daughters, says Gaza father. The bulk of the story is that of the father. The IDF is investigating.

And, Hamas?

"Why do they come after us?" Mr Abed Rabbo said. "We are not militants here, we are not Hamas. We are just ordinary people.

See no Hamas? I'll come back to that.

Abed Rabbo's story has been told elsewhere in the past week or so. Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young mentioned it to whip up the 2,000 strong crowd at a rally in support of Palestine outside the State Library last Sunday. No doubt, the crowd included some well meaning people but it was also strongly represented by supporters waving Hamas and Hizbullah flags; anti-Semitic thugs mouthing off racist slogans and carrying some vile posters like the one in the photograph above, taken at the rally. None of this was mentioned in the Age report published the following day Thousands march in Melbourne against Gaza war. Andra Jackson of the Age saw no Hamas. And like the Age, the police turned a blind eye so one can only conclude that while we do have race hate laws in this country, they are wasting their space in the statute books.

But back now to the Abed Rabbos of Jabalya. The death of the sisters was also covered in an article by Newsweek's Rod Nordland (Hamas and Its Discontents) that raises the question of who is responsible for civilian deaths in Gaza. Nordland's investigation also brings up another related matter - that of the veracity of eyewitnesses in wartime situations:-

"In eastern Jabaliya, just north of Gaza City, an entire neighborhood—at least 50 homes—had been bombed by the Israelis, then occupied with tank units, and then methodically demolished house-by-house, some of them with bulldozers, others with high explosives. In several hours of interviews, every one of the residents interviewed in eastern Jabaliya insisted that there had been no provocation from the area, no resistance fighters, and no rocket launchings. "They are punishing us because they can't reach the resistance to punish them," said Majdi Qatari, a lawyer whose home was one of those destroyed, leaving 13 people homeless. Near him, Najah Abd Rabo shook her head and said Israeli actions were beyond comprehension. "They were claiming there are tunnels under here," she said. Hamas fighters use tunnels, often short ones that are little more than bunkers, to pop out and launch attacks and then get back in, hiding from Israel's ubiquitous surveillance drones, reemerging in a house or backyard as an unarmed civilian. "There aren't any tunnels around here, we are not resistance," she said.Yet not more than 20 feet away from Najah, there was just such a tunnel, which Israeli troops had unearthed. Right in the middle of the road, it had a convincingly camouflaged roof that matched the rest of the road. Inside it was shored up with timbers and concrete."

I highlighted the name of the witness (Najah Abed Rabbo). She saw no Hamas but, like most of her neighbours, in saying so she lied to the journalist about the existence of a tunnel that was used by Hamas fighters. It could be simply a co-incidence that, just down the road, another Abed Rabbo gave the same reporter his version of how his daughters met their deaths. And this other Abed Rabbo also saw no Hamas.

No Hamas in the middle of the Jabalya refugee camp where Hamas is at its strongest, in a street where Hamas operatives had tunnels and a fierce gunfight is raging. And still nobody sees Hamas.

Israel the democracy will investigate the deaths of the Abed Rabbo girls and the IDF tank crew will have the opportunity to give their version. Perhaps their testimony will reveal that somewhere in the battle, they saw Hamas. In any event, if they have committed a crime, the Israeli people will demand the appropriate punishment. It's what separates them from the barbarians they're fighting against.

In the meantime, that a representative of our parliamentary democracy uses unsubstantiated and unverified allegations of this nature in an atmosphere already thick with hatred against Israel and the Jewish people is utterly reprehensible. And a media that sees no Hamas in a war that lasted three weeks and claimed the lives of perhaps a thousand people has much to answer for as well.

Friday, January 23, 2009

After being so publicly exposed and humiliated for its publication of Michael Backman’s anti-Semitic trope in its business pages, the Age has been obsessing this week over the issue of the alleged misuse by Israel of white phosphorous. Today, the same story is covered from an albeit different angle with Israel investigates phosphorus claim.

“ISRAEL has admitted — after facing mounting pressure — that its troops might have used banned white phosphorus shells during its three-week Gaza offensive.”

The poorly written piece by Peter Beaumont from the "Guardian" (why am I not surprised?) tells us the IDF is reviewing claims by the United Nations and human rights groups that it improperly used the munition, in contravention of international law.

Israel has of course, never denied using white phosphorous shells, but always say its use is in accordance with international law. The Beaumont article even says that, so why the sensational headline and an opening paragraph that suggests some hitherto sinister cover up by the Israelis?

The IDF is to be congratulated for ordering the investigation. Now, let’s see what results from the enquiry before jumping to conclusions.

Meanwhile, there were many accusations levelled at Hamas both before and during the course of the Gaza War for contravening international law (including the use of phosphorous in its missiles) so when are we going to see some news articles in the Age enumerating the crimes of which Hamas has been accused?

Some examples: the firing missiles into Israel’s civilian population is a recognised war crime; firing missiles from civilian buildings is a war crime; hiding missiles and weapons in mosques, schools and civilian dwellings is a war crime; building tunnels in and under civilian buildings for use by Hamas terrorists is a war crime; intermingling Hamas terrorists with the civilian population is a war crime; the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit is a war crime; denying him ICRC visits is a war crime; carrying out suicide bombings is a crime against humanity; having for goal, as Hamas has, the destruction of the state of Israel is a crime against humanity.

When are we going to read in the Age about Hamas hijacking humanitarian aid material for its own purposes and diverting them away from the people of this war torn territory? When are we going to hear someone from UNRWA denouncing these acts?

And when is the Age going to tell its readers the real truth about the death toll in Gaza?

YNet News [Gazan doctor says death toll inflated] tells of a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera of claims by a doctor working in Gaza's Shifa Hospital that Hamas has been intentionally inflating the number of casualties resulting from Israel's Operation Cast Lead.

"The number of deceased stands at no more than 500 to 600. Most of them are youths between the ages of 17 to 23 who were recruited to the ranks of Hamas, who sent them to the slaughter," according to the newspaper article ...

A Tal al-Hawa resident told the newspaper's reporter, "Armed Hamas men sought out a good position for provoking the Israelis. There were mostly teenagers, aged 16 or 17, and armed. They couldn't do a thing against a tank or a jet. They knew they are much weaker, but they fired at our houses so that they could blame Israel for war crimes."

The reporter for the Italian newspaper also quoted reporters in the Strip who told of Hamas' exaggerated figures, "We have already said to Hamas commanders – why do you insist on inflating the number of victims?"

These same reporters mentioned that the truth that will come out is likely to be similar to what occurred in Operation Defensive Shield in Jenin. "Then, there was first talk of 1,500 deaths. But then it turned out that there were only 54, 45 of which were armed men," the Palestinian reporters told the Italian newspaper.

Previous reports of the number of dead have all come from Hamas sources and The Age has willingly published them without challenge. They might argue that this was not necessary because Israel closed Gaza to foreign journalists during the course of the war. Now that reporters like Lorenzo Cremonesi who wrote the above (and who recently also wrote of Gaza "One thing seems clear. There is no lack of food and there is no hunger,") there is no reason why the Age can't give us some real news instead of treating readers like idiots by recycling old material and reproducing it in a different form.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ashraf Khalil and Shashank Bengali look at post war Gaza in the Age - Gaza destruction 'heartbreaking': UN chief. They describe a devastated city in the eyes of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who toured the Palestinian enclave and declared himself "deeply grieved by what I have seen today".

"Speaking in front of the smouldering remains of a UN food warehouse, set ablaze last week by an Israeli tank shell, a sombre Mr Ban said he had witnessed

"I knew Gaza well before the attacks, so when Israel ended its ban on foreign journalists reaching Gaza on the day the ceasefire was announced, I was able to see for myself.

"One thing was clear. Gaza City 2009 is not Stalingrad 1944. There had been no carpet bombing of large areas, no firebombing of complete suburbs. Targets had been selected and then hit, often several times, but almost always with precision munitions. Buildings nearby had been damaged and there had been some clear mistakes, like the firebombing of the UN aid headquarters. But, in most the cases, I saw the primary target had borne the brunt."

Butcher's summation makes more sense and even the numbers suggest that the IDF used precision targetting in prosecuting the war and not indiscriminate firing as is alleged by its detractors. I'm not trying to be insensitive to the horrors of war when I say that, given that the number of buildings either damaged or destroyed was 21,000 the fact that as few as 1,300 were killed in a place where the enemy fighters usually don't wear uniforms, most of them hide behind their families and civilian neighbors. it looks like extraordinarily accurate targeting by the Israelis with a kill rate of 1 person for every 16 buildings.

A Newsweek Article - HAMAS AND ITS DISCONTENTS - reveals the truth about one of the notorious incidents during the Gaza War: the shelling on 15 January of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society buildings followed by a shell hitting its Al Quds Hospital next door:

"Asked if there were any militants firing from the hospital or the Red Crescent buildings, hospital director general Dr. Khalid Judah chose his words carefully. "I am not able to say if anyone was using the PRCS buildings [the two Palestine Red Crescent Society buildings adjacent to the hospital], but I know for a fact that no one was using the hospital." In the Tal-al Hawa neighborhood nearby, however, Talal Safadi, an official in the leftist Palestinian People's Party, said that resistance fighters were firing from positions all around the hospital."

It's also becoming quite obvious that Hamas' franchise partner in Gaza, namely UNRWA and its functionaries are in it up to their necks. The article repeats the standard UNRWA line from its head John Ging claiming that the Israeli version about the bombing of the UNRWA-run school on 6 January that the schools were being used as firing positions against them "is implausible." The conclusion that Ging wants us to reach namely, that it was a deliberate unprovoked attack by the Israelis is even more implausible given that the IDF and eyewitnesses quoted by Reuters noted that the dead victims included at least two Hamas operatives who were identified by name and that their shells landed outside the school. Even the Melbourne Age concedes that!

"Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Avital Leibovich, head of the IDF's foreign-press branch, counters that the military has documentary evidence including aerial surveillance tapes of the northern part of Gaza City "in which you can see schools next to [Hamas] training camps, launching sites in or near schools or from the streets themselves …When fire is opened at us and soldiers are in a life or death situation, we protect ourselves and Hamas is accountable for casualties if it chooses to put a launching site near schools and hospitals." She also gave NEWSWEEK a copy of what she said was a Hamas map which paratroopers recovered during ground operations inside Gaza. 'It shows how a neighborhood was taken and divided into three war zones. Hamas centers were scattered over the neighborhood including a gas depot with explosive charges … On the map, you can see the Football Association and Technical School are surrounded by 45 Hamas positions, from which Hamas fired.'"We still await an explanation from UNRWA about reports of the hijacking by Hamas of humanitarian aid shipped into Gaza from Israel in recent days. It's terribly strange that, during the heat of the conflict just two weeks ago, the UNRWA people were able to investigate incidents and come to a 99% conclusion on who was responsible in time to meet the morning news deadlines of the major media, yet on this serious allegation about Hamas, two days have passed and UNRWA talking heads are none the wiser about the whole thing. There seems to be a breakdown of communication between the franchise partners down there in Gaza - possibly because the Hamas side is too busy celebrating its glorious victory.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Elder of Ziyon has broken the news from a Jordanian source that "Hamas hijacked Jordanian aid trucks after they crossed into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Tuesday. The aid was to go to UNRWA. As the truck drivers started unloading the aid, Hamas gunmen opened fire on them and forced them to go to Hamas-run stores."

The story has now been confirmed by the Palestinian News Agency Ma'an (although Ma'an is careful not to mention that it was Hamas that did this act, as the Jordanian source Petra reported).

A little over a week ago the international news agencies were all over a story about an alleged IDF shelling attack on a UN aid truck. UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness point blank accused the Israelis of responsibility and many willing news outlets were all to quick to echo the accusation. It turned out that one of the wounded Palestinians evacuated by the Red Cross to the Israeli border was being treated for gunshot wounds and not shrapnel from tank shells proving the IDF version that Hamas had carried out the atrocity. Gunness, who comes across in interviews as vehemently anti-Israel and singing directly from the Hamas hymn book, slunk back from whence he came and the story died a painful death.

Now, the Elder wants explanations. He sent this email to Gunness:

"Mr. Gunness:This morning the Petra news agency of Jordan reported that one or more aid trucks from Jordan, meant for UNRWA,were hijacked at gunpoint byHamas. Does UNRWA have any comment?How many times has this happened, to any NGO aid?Has UNRWA ever condemned Hamas for such actions?Thanks"Gunness, who has been ever so quick to shout his condemnation of the Israelis in other instances, shot back this response:We are looking into this and I hope to have a reply for you soon. Chris

As this is all happening Ban Ki Moon is in town (Gaza) and for once, has no comment to make.

Meanwhile, the international media aren't touching the story.

Perhaps a few people might be interested in passing on this important news story as a "tip" to the Age which told the Australian Jewish News yesterday that they "want to continue to tell great stories," and that their coverage of the conflict is ... ahem "balanced".

Q: How does the Age apologise for allowing a racist attack on one group of people to be published in its pages?

A: By placing the most obscure, mealy mouthed excuse for an apology in an even more obscure part of the newspaper and then, a day later, publishing another blood libel against the same people.

Days after the International Red Cross confirmed that Israel fired white phosphorus shells in its offensive in the Gaza Strip but said "it has no evidence to suggest that the shells are being used improperly or illegally. They are used to illuminate targets at night, or to create a smoke screen for day attacks," the Age published an article from AFP reporting that Amnesty International "has said that Israel's use during the Gaza offensive of white phosphorus — banned under international law for use near civilians — was 'clear and undeniable'."

It's those sinister Israelis again.

The problem is that nobody's denying its use by the Israelis (although there's a cover up under foot to suppress the fact that Hamas uses phophorous in shells uses to attack Israeli civilians) but everything else underlying the article is either false or downright misleading including the suggestion that Israel breakes the rules about its use and, as usual, it fails abysmally to tell Israel's side of the story.

More evidence of the rancid culture pervading this formerly respectable newspaper.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Nestled away on page 2 of the print edition of the Age is this apology:-

APOLOGY (from The Age)

A column by Michael Backman, headlined "Israelis living high on US expense account" (BusinessDay 17.1.09) was published in error. The Age does not in any way endorse the views of the columnist, apologises for the distress the column caused to many readers, particularly in the Jewish community, and regrets publication of the column.

I'm not sure if there are any peace marches for Gaza slated for this weekend.

I'm not sure if Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young will be on hand to deliver another speech replete with more urban myths concocted by Hamas and completely unsubstantiated like the one she told the crowd at Sunday's rally about the mother of three holding a white flag, who upon emerging from her house, was allegedly shot in the head by the Israeli military (although as a parliamentarian she will, in due course, inevitably be brought to account for recklessly making such a statement in public).

I'm not sure how the Greens and many others who took part feel about being part of a nation wide rabble that ignores the environment and destroys valuable plants in an orgy of hate in which racist words and banners played not an insignificant part.

Gray says the demonstrators trampled over several flower beds and left rubbish around the gardens.

"All the annual beds that we are probably supposed to have ready for the Australia Day celebrations have all been crushed so it's a bit disappointing. We're in a bit of a bind because they've crushed probably a few thousand this time."

Meanwhile, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils says it is unsure who organised yesterday's rally.

I'm not sure whether this is because the group wants to distance itself from the eco-vandals or from the racists who were shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

I should not have been so staggered to learn of the decision by the Age Business Editor to publish Michael Backman's racist tome against the Israeli people in its business section on Saturday 17 January 2009 - Israelis are living high on US expense account.

The Victorian Jewish community has responded to this hate filled piece of vitriol based on supposition, questionable anecdotes and twisted logic with this media release:

MEDIA RELEASE18 January 2009

VICTORIAN JEWISH COMMUNITY CONDEMNS AGE’S ANTISEMITIC ARTICLE

John Searle, president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), and Dr Danny Lamm, president of the Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV), today jointly called on Melbourne’s The Age to apologise for publishing a blatantly antisemitic article (attached) in the Saturday Age yesterday.

Searle and Lamm stated:

"Sometimes criticism of Israeli foreign policy becomes so irrational and so hate-filled that it spills over into antisemitism. Yesterday Saturday’s Age (17/01) published such a piece wherein its columnist Michael Backman encapsulated centuries of hate speech against Jews in a few hundred words.

Among other things, Backman wrote:

Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians caused the London, Bali and World Trade Centre bombings.Israel has united the Islamic world against Western nations.

The historical persecution of Jews constitutes punishment for Jesus’ death.

Israelis and Jews are disinterested in the welfare of others, and do not invest financially or socially in the broader community.

It is inexplicable why The Age would publish such a pernicious article, and why by one of its business columnists, a man whose field of expertise is Asian business and art, a man apparently without credentials on the Middle East, international politics or contemporary religion.

Each of the above statements is demonstrably wrong as are other assertions in the article. It is sheer nonsense to claim, for example that "The enmity many Muslims now feel for Israel has nothing to do with religion". Really? Perhaps Backman should read the hate-filled Hamas Covenant which explicitly talks about extermination of all Jews, not merely Israelis.

It is unacceptable that The Age gave a platform to this man’s hatred of Jews and Israelis and incitement against them. The Victorian Jewish community’s experience is that such commentary rouses violence and hatred against local Jews. Indeed, the JCCV and the ZCV made this very point to The Age only two weeks ago. We were assured by acting editor Mark Baker that its reportage was totally even-handed. And yet its editors saw fit to publish this vile piece. We are outraged with The Age for publishing Backman’s disgusting falsehoods.

The JCCV and SZC have complained to The Age today in the strongest possible terms on behalf of the Victorian Jewish community. We have further committed ourselves to further steps, including possible legal action. This is not 1930s Germany. We will not accept this hatred."

I couldn't possibly imagine a similar article about any other group of people gaining publication in any normal news outlet. The Age however, is not "normal" when it comes to Israel and the Jews. Mark Baker should be asking himself whether he would allow such a piece to be published about Muslims, Chileans or any other group. I can tell you now, that it just wouldn't happen.

Unfortunately, in the case of the Age and the Age alone, it came as no surprise whatever that this racist trope was allowed to see the light of day.

I will add nothing further other than to add an anecdote I recently heard about an Australian woman who was badly injured while bike riding on a tour of Argentina. I was told that she was full of admiration for the Israeli tourists - the only ones among her group who took the trouble to look after her and her sister during the woman's hospitalisation. I can vouch for the fact that this is a true story. I can't do the same for a lot of what I read in the Age these days.

Local Al-Qaida franchisee Abu Bakar Bashir insisted Australians were murdered in Bali because "the Crusaders took Muslim lands (he was referring to Australian's intervention in East Timor)".

It is offensive for Age writer Michael Backman to use the blood of 80 Australians for his bigoted theories. Crass stereotypes about young Israelis not paying bills in Nepal feeds into offensive & primitive prejudice about ‘penny- pinching' Jews. Backman's poisonous article in Saturdays business Age has no place in serious commentary, I call on Backman to apologise.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Professor Alan Dershowitz took on Professor Iain Scobbie on BBC's Newsnight in a debate on whether Israel had committed war crimes in its Gaza campaign and absolutely "pantsed" his opponent.

The programme opened in typical BBC style with a list of alleged war crimes committed by Israel and the allegation from UN sources that 40% of 1,000 Palestinian victims were civilians.

Scobble was on the back foot from the start. He wasn’t contesting that Hamas' actions in virtually exclusively targeting civilians are war crimes and he also admitted of the allegations against Israel that they "obviously require investigation"> By this time, the Professor from SOAS* was virtually sending out an SOS for help.

When Dershowitz's claim that Hamas was using civilians as human shields was objected to by Scobble as just an "allegation", Dershowitz said the evidence is available on film he has seen and further, that the figure of 40% was, in fact, an unproven allegation.

The BBC presenter finally saved an embarrassed Scobble by ending the segment.

It was brilliant work by the eminent lawyer who demonstrated that he knows his stuff and further, that the allegations against Israel of committing war crimes - a common mantra from many on the BBC in recent weeks - were unsubstantiated!

The Age headline today screams out ISRAELI STRIKES KEEP CEASEFIRE AT BAYand Jason Koutsoukis' report from Jerusalem unquestionable places the onus for the delay in a ceasefire in the Gaza war on the Israelis - who else?

Predictably, the press has been exaggerating Gaza death and damage...sometimes as an expression of its own inventiveness, sometimes as a result of historically unreliable informants, including those NGOs that have become, for all intents and purposes, accessories to the crimes of the terrorist gangs and their suicidal intifadas.

Among these is the International Red Cross. Maybe it is compensating for ignoring almost totally the Jewish catastrophe during the Hitler era. In any event, even the I.C.R.C., having made outlandish accusations against Israel, has now, as reported by Ethan Bronner in today's Times, reneged on some of its charges.

For example, Jakob Kellenberger has cleared up the fact that, while the civilian situation is still "dire," "the principal hospital was making do with supplies, and that doctors, working around the clock, were mostly coping with the flow of the wounded." Or "In general, they did not complain about the lack of equipment or material." This is actually scarce consolation. But it is Hamas that has systematically put the Gaza populace in harm's way by installing all of its weapons in the midst of human habitation. This is patented behavior of terrorist groups.

With Durban II coming up in the near future I suspect there will be more lies from NGO's about the Jewish State and more retractions (but only once the damage is done and the retractions will only appear in the blank pages).

American novelist, essayist and law professor, Thane Rosenbaum's Op Ed in the Jerusalem Post - For Israel, every day is Groundhog Day is essential reading for those who want a clear and concise summation of Israel's dilemma in dealing with its neighbours.

"The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information."The report goes on to say:In 2004, former UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen told the Canadian Broadcasting Company, "I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime." He added, "We do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another."It seems that UNRWA would like us to think that things are different these days because a "spokesman for UNRWA adamantly said that the agency is now free of terrorist connections."

Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch accused Israel at the weekend of firing artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza. HRW suggested that Israel was not taking all feasible precautions to minimize the impact of white phosphorus on civilians.

"What we're saying is the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas like a refugee camp is showing that the Israelis are not taking all feasible precautions. It's just an unnecessary risk to the civilian population, not only in the potential for wounds but also for burning homes and infrastructure," said Garlasco in this Associated Press article.

Garlasco's claims were aired widely in the world's media and BBC World ran a story about a Palestinian burns victim in a Gaza Hospital with doctors claiming that the injury was caused by a shell doused in phosphorous.

"The international Red Cross said Tuesday that Israel has fired white phosphorus shells in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, but has no evidence to suggest it is being used improperly or illegally."

The rebuttal has received a minute amount of coverage in comparison to the original story, providing yet another instance of NGO's and media sensationally attacking Israel followed by near silence when that version gets debunked.

Of course, when there are reports that Palestinian mortar shells which are aimed at civilians and not used to illuminate the sky contain phosphorous, nobody wants to know. Here's one such report - Phosphorus mortar shell detected in Negev.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

It might be an opportune time to go back more than 50 years to 1958 and visit the archives of The Economist - Too Late for Palestine?

"PRESIDENT Nasser, who has a taste for anniversaries, was expected to celebrate one at Gaza last weekend. It is exactly a year since the Israelis left the strip, and prophets had whispered that he might declare a Palestinian republic there. Instead he made only a weak gesture; perhaps he is not sufficiently sure of his strength in the refugee areas not under his control to claim the allegiance of Palestinians everywhere. He gave Gaza a legislative council dominated by Egyptians and Egyptian-appointed members, and an executive council appointed by the Egyptian minister."Back in the days before the Israelis came along it appears that not enough was being done by the Arab occupying masters of Gaza and the West Bank. Still, the locals weren't sending suicide bombers and missiles into the streets of Cairo and Amman either. Nor did the "occupation" seem to trouble them even if they had no universities, few schools and hospitals and a miserably low standard of living. Still, it could have been worse if the federation of Iraq and Jordan would have worked, the Palestinians might have become vassals of Saddam Hussein. That would have been really lovely!

Monday, January 12, 2009

After all that was made of last week's Gaza school incident in which some Hamas people and some Palestinians civilians were killed near and in a school, one would think this story from Haaretz would be attracting interest in all of the world's news outlets - WATCH: IDF uncovers booby-trapped school next to Gaza zoo (that's the zoo where Hamas Al Aksa TV teaches their young kiddies how too bash, taunt and otherwise molest zoo animals just for the fun of it).

"Israel Defense Forces troops this week uncovered a school in the Gaza Strip rigged by Hamas militants with a large amount of explosives."Today's edition of Haaretz also carried this human interest story -Sources: Hamas leaders hiding in Israel-built Shifa Hospital basement. "Senior Hamas officials in Gaza are hiding out in a "bunker" built by Israel, intelligence officials suspect: Many are believed to be in the basements of the Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City, which was refurbished during Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip."That's the same hospital where those two Norwegian nuff nuffs from medicines sans etiqutte have been holding court with the pride of Gaza's journalists (mainly Hamas mouthpieces) producing a massive propagandafest so that Annie Lennox can feel good as she stumbles her way through incoherent rants in front of rabid Islamofascist lunatics who then get off invading and severely damaging a Starbucks franchise while calling on the Juices to be gassed.Look away. There's nothing to see here.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

It seems we are entering the Age of the The Hoax. In the Middle East, we're being fed with a constant stream of hoaxes from the Pallywood studios like the mad doctor escapades, the UN school "investigation" (here's some recently released IDF vision taken from a schoolyard in Gaza on 8 January) and more while, at home, we've had the Quadrant hoax that brought the "Gotcha" revelations in our media this week.

The Age of the Hoax extended this week even into the letters section of the Age Newspaper. On Thursday, it published this piece from a Raya Rusho of Greensborough, an outlying suburb of Melbourne:

WHEN LACK OF 'BIAS' IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE

I HAVE been trying to remain unbiased for many years concerning the continued violence between the Palestinians and Israel, especially as I believe it is imperative to maintain an open mind on such heated issues.

However, I can no longer justify staying unbiased when I read and hear about unjust, inhumane and extremely unreasonable acts of violence against innocent victims who have now clearly a justified moral stance against their Israeli attackers.

I can no longer say "perhaps we should try to consider both sides of the argument". I cannot but abhor the actions of the Israeli Government.

We all now know the Palestinian plight. I only hope we can all begin to take the side of the most oppressed in this situation.

Raya Rusho, Greensborough

Unfortunately for Ms. Rusho and the Age, Vex News smelled a rat and carried out some research on the author of the letter and discovered that she was lying when she claimed to have been "unbiased" and had an "open mind" about the conflict.

A very brief Google search uncovered the fact that she is an Arab who has previously lived in Libya and Syria, an atheist architecture student at Melbourne University and, most probably, an unrepentent anti-Semite. Here's what Raya Rusho wrote on the BBC website in 2001:

"The Israelis have gained enough power and money to prey on those weaker than them. It's only a matter of time beforethe Jewslose that power and money and they are left to fend for themselves. With this they'll have a taste of their own medicine … "

Judge for yourself whether, nine years later when she penned her letter to the Age, she had an open mind about the conflict.

For its part, the Age which accepted the Rusho letter should now inform its readers that it was also the victim of a hoax perpetrated by someone who clearly lied about being an open minded observer of this tragic conflict.

On Thursday the UN dramatically announced the cancellation of deliveries of humanitatian aid to Palestinians in Gaza because of the death of a Palestinian aid worker contracted to the UN and the wounding of two others after a UN truck was fired on near the Erez Crossing.

Ture to form, the UN accused the IDF of doing the firing (although there is a long history of Palestinian terrorists firing on this crossing) and these reports were widely disseminated in the global media.

"On Friday, the Post reported that contrary to foreign press reports, it was not certain that an IDF tank shell hit the aid truck, and that in all probability, the aid workers were hit by Hamas gunfire. The foreign press reports were based on UN sources, who later admitted to the Post that they were not sure in which direction the truck was headed when it was hit, and could also not say with certainty that tank shells were responsible.

"Foreign press reports said the dead Palestinian and two others were hit by tank shells. An MDA medic at the scene told the Post that soldiers in the field had said Hamas snipers targeted the aid workers. A Post probe revealed that the two wounded Palestinians were being treated at Barzilai for gunshot wounds.

"Reacting to the IDF's assertion that it did not fire on the UN convoy last Thursday, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the UN 'was careful to source its information from eyewitnesses on the ground.'"

Quite.

Mr. Gunness is always very carefult to quote from sources on the ground and damn whether they are credible or reliable or otherwise. A very definite pattern is emerging here and it's time an independent inquiry was carried out into the operations of UNWRA in the region.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Thanks to the Jawa Report we can meet the new replacement at Hamas' Al Aksa TV, we can all meet the new replacement of the Juice eating Rabbit; "Muslima, the porn queen of Hamas." It's on LiveLeak. Log in carefully but do it very soon before the usual fatwas and death threats are made to the people running Live Leak.

For thos with poor memories, the bunny replaced the bee which replaced Farfour the Mouse. All died at the hands of those nasty zionists.

Muslima's in a different category. She and 71 others are awaiting the next Hamasnik to poke his head out of a foxhole.

Norwegian doctors Eric Fosse, right and his colleague doctor Mads Gilbert ham it up in this Associated Press snapshot for an audience of reporters after arriving at the Egyptian border crossing terminal of Rafah from Gaza, where they had been working the media over there.

Further news is emerging that implicates these actors in an elaborate hoax. The so-called "freelance photographer" who filmed that staged hospital scene, Ashraf Mashharawi, has direct links with Hamas and doctors around the world are lining up expressing the opinion that the video is staged and that the "CPR" shown is an obvious fraud, for many reasons.

Judging by the Keystone Cops manner of care being given to Doctor Mads' patient by that efficient looking assistant, we should be left in no doubt as to why he's losing patients at an alarming rate.

Friday, January 09, 2009

The United Nations Security Council today passed Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Israel's offensive in Gaza - Haaretz.

Israel's Foreign Minister says Israel will "continue to act only in its interests and according to its own security needs" while Hamas says "the group is not interested in the resolutiom because it does not meet the demands of the movement."

Just wondering how the media will treat this. Will the headlines trumpet that Israel, and Israel alone, is not heeding the Resolution or will they be honest and emphasise Hamas' position that it's simply not interested?

I'm also looking forward to the day when the Age reveals to its readers the fact that Hamas is murdering suspected collaborators at an alarming rate without the benefit of a trial. Remember, this is the Age which wants people to think Hamas is a boy scout troup and a democratic beacon for the Palestinian people. The latest journalist to report on these summary executions is an unlikely character - far left wing Israeli Amira Hass in Hamas executes collaborators and restricts Fatah movement.

"Estimates of the number of suspects executed range from 40 to 80, but amid the prevailing conditions shelling, fear of walking the streets and media blackouts it is virtually impossible to verify the numbers or identities of the dead."

My bet is that along with the UN and the Red Cross, the usual suspects in the media will be true to form, look the other way and add 80 to the number of Palestinian civilian dead in this conflict and just blame Israel without checking any of the facts.

Thursday, January 08, 2009

A debate took place on CNN last night between Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor and UNWRA's Christopher Gunness about the incident in which more than 40 Palestinians were killed following Hamas mortar fire and IDF return shelling in the area of an UNWRA school in which Palestinian civilians were taking refuge.

Palmor told CNN's Finnouala Sweeney that Israel "know(s) for a fact that a Hamas squad was firing mortar shells from the immediate vicinity of the school, from the school grounds."

At this point Gunness objected asking Palmor to clarify the point as to whether Hamas were "in an UNRWA compound or not?"

When Palmor clarified that "the immediate vicinity" meant "right next to the wall," a sneering Gunness appeared to be in raptures as if he had won some major point in a PR battle against the Israeli. Gunness said based on UNRWA's investigation, the agency is "99.9 percent certain" there were no Palestinian militants in or on the grounds of the school that was sheltering civilians when it was shelled by Israeli forces.

Of course, Gunness' was being far to cocky because it is also clear that the IDF did not fire shells into the school grounds and that Palmor's version that Israel was targetting terrorists by returning their fire and not the school is therefore correct. According to Jason Koutsoukis in the Melbourne Age, "three tanks shells exploded just outside the school grounds, causing pandemonium inside." The IDF has suggested that the "pandemonium" is the likely result of secondary explosions.

UNWRA says it wants a "full, transparent and independent inquiry" to determine exactly how this occurred and I agree. The inquiry should however, not be confined to this single incident but should also cover allegations made in the past that UNWRA employs Hamas operatives, that UNWRA facilities and schools are used as cover for terrorists and as places in which they store weapons.

Hopefully, such an enquiry will not take as long as the United Nations itself takes to conduct enquiries. Speaking on the same CNN programme, Palmor noted that a U.N. inquiry into a 2007 incident in which terrorists used a UN compound to fire on Israeli forces has still not been fully investigated.

"How can we be sure that a new investigation will be credibly held by the same people?" Palmor asked.

Terrorists in Lebanon fire rockets at Israeli civilain targets and the headline tells us that it's those nasy Israelis doing the shelling again.Firing back at the war criminals who initiated the incident.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

You wouldn't know about it if you read the Fairfax Press which now appears to be acting like a willing helper for the callous Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as pawns in their public relations warfare against Israel and the Jewish people, but thanks to the The Australian newspaper, readers are able to understand just the depths and the depravity of this terrorist organisation. John Lyons' bloodcurdling report [Hamas terror: every Jewish child now a target]should be compulsory reading for its cheerleaders over at Fairfax who continue to suppress any part of the role of Hamas in a litany of war crimes including its criminal use of Palestinian civilians inside Gaza's schools.

"Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar has warned that Jewish children are now legitimate targets, in a bloodcurdling precursor to tanks rolling into the Islamic militant stronghold of Khan Younis yesterday."Just in case you didn't get it the first time, this beast is not talking about Israelis or Zionists. He's talking about Jews. Jewish children anywhere.

The Australian also carries an Op Ed by New Republic editor Marty Peretz West must guarantee Gaza resolution in which he succinctly covers most of the major issues of this war in a nutshell including most of the salient issues that the Age refuses to cover when reporting on events from the region.

Some of the Arab and Muslim demonstrators who recently came to our offices were holding signs that said "Free Gaza." Many Israelis would raise that same sign, me included, but for different reasons.

People tend to forget that as of August 2005, Israel has not been in Gaza, and that the Gazans have been under Hamas control since June 2007. Indeed, Gaza needs to be freed from many different extremist forces.

Gaza should be freed from Hamas, a terrorist organization that seized the strip by force. Since the takeover, Hamas has run Gaza's economy into the ground and now nearly half of the work force is unemployed. Hamas has built a Taliban-style state in Gaza and introduced many of the Islamic Shari'a laws, institutionalizing the persecution of women and minorities.

Hamas has transformed Gaza from a free territory to a large bunker, a place where rockets are stored under families, schools and places of prayer.

Unfortunately, Gazans not only live among this militarization but are now a tool in Hamas' aggression. The terrorist organization has developed a strategy of using innocent civilians as human shields. When Israel warns that the houses of Hamas operatives and commanders will be targeted, the terrorists bring in innocent citizens, often by force, in an effort to increase the likelihood of civilian casualties. Hamas' leaders rely on the strict Israeli moral code, hoping to avoid being attacked or that a strike will allow them to score points in the media by sacrificing their own people, creating what looks like acts of Israeli military aggression.

Gaza should be freed from the intervention of Iran, a state that openly admits to financing Hamas. Iran is also helping Palestinian terror organizations with training, intelligence and equipment. Some of this "aid" is channeled through Hezbollah in Lebanon — yet another Iranian proxy organization. Hezbollah and Iran use the Gazans to maintain regional political relevance in their empty agenda against Israel.

Gaza should be freed from some of the Arab satellite channels like Al-Jazeera. These television stations engage in the direct incitement of the Arab and Muslim world. Everything is acceptable in their eyes to raise their ratings, including long shots of bodies and injuries. Some of these channels do not dismiss any editing trick and consider propaganda as a normal part of their news reporting.

As far as Israel is concerned, Gaza is free and it is the decision of its inhabitants as to what the area's destiny will be. They can continue to buy into the self-defeatingpromises of terrorist organizations and extremist ideologies.

Even worse, they can continue to let these organizations use them as human shields and demolish their hopes and futures.

Gazans can truly be free only by declaring Gaza a terror-free zone. The people of Gaza have many resources in their hands to achieve success. Gaza could use its beautiful Mediterranean coast to attract Israeli and Egyptian tourists.

It can renew the flower and fruit exports to Europe that Israel left behind. The airport that was built there can be reopened. The seaport that is planned and even the natural gas fields in its waters could be built.

The people of this region need to make the decision that Gaza will become a model of peace and stability and, hopefully, the beginning of the two-state solution: Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace.

Ambassador Reda Mansour is an Israeli Druze and the current consul general of Israel to the southeastern United States. Mansour is also an accomplished author, having published a number of award-winning poems and short stories. The ambassador is a longtime activist for dialogue between Israelis and Arabs.

The story carries a different headline - Israeli strike kills 40 in UN school. It tells about the deaths of up to "45 people seeking refuge in a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip" (i.e. the school was run by UNWRA - one of the largest employers of Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip) is a totally one-sided version of the incident suggesting this was a callous attack on innocents. This version is typical of AFP fairness and balance in that the 490 word article written by an unamed "journalist" ends with the following 22 words which is the only part of the story that deals with the Israeli side of the story:-

Israel said it would investigate the attacks on the schools. It accuses Hamas of using schools, mosques and residential areas for cover.

"At least 30 people were reportedly killed and 53 wounded in an explosion in a UN-run school in the town of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians. The IDF issued a statement saying the school grounds were used by terrorists to fire mortar shells at the troops. According to the IDF, among the dead were members of a Hamas launching cell, including operatives Immad Abu Askar and Hassan Abu Askar."

And this:

"Defense officials told The Associated Press that booby-trapped bombs in the school triggered the secondary explosions which killed scores of Palestinians on the site."

The fact that Hamas uses schoolyards to fight its wars is nothing new and comes as no surprise. Nor is the fact that the Age has chosen to ignore many reports in the past of this phenomenon. - to its everlasting shame, they're all there in its blank pages. And to make matters worse, it opens its opinion pages to an arch terrorist who has genocidal intent towards the Jewish people - Gaza: the great divide - 1

And to understand the extent of the Age's bastardry in publishing lop sided report after lop sided report on what's happening in Gaza, Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic is a good read - The World's Pornographic Interest in Jewish Moral Failure. For good measure, he also discusses the pornography of Hamas and others using and recycling photographs of dead Palestinian children for propaganda - a practice that continues because so many in the media let them get away with it!

FOOTNOTE: The Australian Newspaper is not afraid to avail its readers of the truth about the Hamas leadership in hiding. Today's reporting on the situation in Gaza by the Oz is a case in point - more later.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert (pictured above) recently arrived in Gaza ostensibly to support the humanitarian aid effort at Al Shifa Hospital. According to Wikipedia he is also "solidarity worker and politician" with "broad range international experiences, in particular from locations that merge medical and political issues."

If we cut the bullshit out of that description, we're left with the fact that he's out there to act as a propaganda mouth piece for the Hamas regime. Gilbert is not simply the medicine man who arrived out of the blue but a partisan observer who has long been active in pro Palestinian organizations in Norway, a member of a revolutionary socialist party and an apologist for the 9/11 mass murderers: -

"I am upset over the terrorist attack, but is equally upset over the suffering which the United States has created. It is in this context 5,000 dead people must be seen. If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, they have also suppressed a moral right to attack the United States with the weapons they had to create. Dead civilians is the same whether they are Americans, Palestinians or Iraqis."

I highlighted the word "but" because apologists for war criminals almost always have a "but" with which to justify criminal acts. "Suicide bombings are terrible but the bombers are under occupation". Get the picture?

It's also ironic that the doctor also seems to promote the cycle of violence theory which can be used to justify any futher violence after the initial act. For some reason however, this doesn’t give Israel the right to defend its own citizens from Hamas rocket attacks.

These days, although Gilbert is supposed to be operating on patients at Al Shifa Hospital (where Hamas leaders have been in hiding disguised as doctors and nurses), the peripatetic Doctor Mads is becoming quite a media celebrity as the front man for the Hamas media road show. He is not only in contact with Norwegian media but is fast becoming a regular on CNN, BBC, ABC and Al Jazeera and is appearing daily accusing the Israel of murder and making a diverse range of other unsubstatiated and fanciful claims including that the Israeli’s are using "fuel air explosives and depleted uranium" in missions against Hamas - Attacks condemned as supplies dwindle and deaths rise.

Gilbert is playing games with his readers here because there is no evidence to support his statements. Nor is there any record of Israeli use of depleted uranium which is used only for anti-tank kinetic energy penetrators. Since Hamas does not have a single tank, the Israelis certainly have no use for depleted uranuim in Gaza.

Further, the claim that Israel has a depleted uranium tipped bomb is a fiction – no such weapon exists except in the fertile imaginations of pro-Hizbullah propagandists from back in the Second Lebanon War days. And now, it seems in the mind of Dr. Gilbert who made his mind up about these imaginary weapons within days of arriving in Gaza and without any apparent scientific analysis of anything to support his nonsensical conclusions.

I have no problem with Gilbert, the international humanitarian aid worker, but he is also a propagandist who has shown with his fantasising about depleted uranium and other wild accusations levelled at Israel that he can't be trusted. As such, should not be given the credibility associated with appearances on international news services.

While Gilbert is in the spotlight ranting about a shortage of medicine available to Gazans, perhaps the media might deign to investigate reports that Hamas has set up an independent hospital in the Gaza Strip to treat operatives wounded in fighting with the IDF. According to this report in the Jerusalem Post, Hamas "is pilfering a significant portion of the medicine allowed into the strip."

Sadly for the people of Gaza, I somehow doubt that the thought of Hamas stealing medicine from them is going to make this doctor mad at all.

To be honest - if more English women and children were dying - we wouldn't feel quite so bad about the number of Germans dying. But it's just so UNFAIR that more Germans are dying...

Bottom lines:

"I will carry on the fight until the last traces of the Jewish-Communist European hegemony have been obliterated." Adolf Hitler - 28th November 1941 to Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (The Grand Mufti) - seen in the photo at the top of this page saluting his SS buddies in 1941. Oh the ties that bind...We will not rest until we destroy the Zionist entity" - Hamas leader Fathi Hammad in Gaza - January 2nd 2009

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." - Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant